Local life & Little Histories

You broke it.. so who fixes it?

We live in a world where the natural environment is exploited to serve human interest to the detriment or at best with only the casual nod of the head or token gesture to any other living creature.

In the last few decades species lost, many more on the brink, most suffering massive decline.

We live in a world of separation, we even talk about the natural world immediately placing the areas where other species live as something other than our human world.

You don't have to look that far or at anything other than the once ordinary, everyday, to witness this. The hedgehog is one such species. Common, undoubtedly more plentiful once than it would have been due to the way we managed land but now with populations crashing. Out of eight Royal Parks in London one has hedgehogs present, and this is park land we are talking about.

So who is to blame?

Land management in the 'countryside' has changed massively resulting in vast swathes of wildlife sterile land. Urban centers have sprawled swallowing up the surround green areas, garden management less sympathetic to wildlife. So do we blame the landowner, the corporate, the government, the town planner or ourselves?

We love to be able to put blame into boxes to be fixed, but all of the above involve humans and all of them rely on an exchange of goods, services and money with us.

Who is going to fix it?

The RSPB later forming from the Plumage League founded in 1889. Founded by women against the use of birds feathers in clothing and later amalgamating with the Fur and feather league to become the Society for Protection of Birds. Now one of the foremost wildlife organisations in the country and striving to secure a future beyond birds.

The Wildlife Trusts the later coming together of regional groups after the founding of the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves by Charles Rothschild in 1912. I am sure then that the world was not in the state it is today and if only he had known how portentous his wish for nature reserves would be.

There are far too many organisations to name that have played and are playing a critical role in bringing awareness, creating wildlife havens and fighting to change the way we, business and government view our world. Notice I said 'our world', not the natural world.

However, no one has actually 'fixed it', have they? In truth although changes are made, areas protected, local successes achieved- decline is still rampant. In fact things are generally for the worse. Why? It is rather like the painting of the forth road bridge there is always something else to do and so many people can only do so much.

Separation in language.

The Natural World. Preservation. Conservation.

We separate everything non human or non man made into the box of the natural world which is somewhere over there... somewhere on that reserve. We aim to preserve which makes me think of setting something in perspex so we can pop it in a museum to never change. We conserve, rather like a Jam Conserve where we take bits of nature and preserve it for a certain amount of time for us to use when we will. Is this being pedantic, I think not. Words have power and I think that we need to re-think. To not pigeon hole nature, to place it in a location to be visited at a time.

The point.

Without making this overly long and trying to keep things simple my point is that we are all responsible and that we all have the power to make a difference. It also isn't the preserve of any organisation to fix things even with your support. We use separation in language, we maybe offset some of our responsibility with a donation or membership, we all make unnecessary purchases, maybe feel ourselves too busy. But that square or rectangle of land outside and/or indeed in-front of your home is potential habitat, a haven and if indeed we all took part then haven would become a redundant word because everywhere would be filled with birds, butterflies hedgehogs, frogs, beetles. We can all make choices when we spend, support food producers that work with the 'natural world' there it is again....our world. We can consume less, and that is not just food (of which a vast percentage is thrown away) but in goods. We can purchase well for items that last. We can all support a change of attitude passing on higher expectations than the younger generation have. Children today grow up with the expectation of maybe seeing a hedgehog if they are lucky. That wouldn't have been the expectation of someone a few decades ago. The issue is that the present low expectation becomes the baseline expectation and further losses compared to that don't seem to be so bad.

That's the ultimate point to all of this. It up to all of us to change the way we behave. Organisations can achieve great things, they can act as catalysts for change, but ultimately it is you and the millions of others of  your species that have the power not to conserve or protect but to enhance, to grow, to give rise to the proliferation of all the other species that we share this planet with.

Change and the future is in your hands and mine and the big organisations... but it starts with simple things by you, and you, and you- millions of times over and then it is painless and easy to achieve. Let's all take responsibility.

The Window into The Willows

 

It seems both like yesterday and also a very long time ago that we started Willows Hedgehog Rescue.

In truth it was in 2010 when the rescue was founded by Jayne and me, the result of a blind hedgehog visiting our garden.

We worked with another rescue for some time before founding what has now become a fairly well known and I hope well respected rescue dedicated to the treatment of and for awareness for hedgehogs.

Then Willows consisted of a space made and a few rabbit hutches installed into our garage. Little then did we know that in 2015 we would be undergoing our fourth major revamp in the six years of running. 

Three rabbit hutches and a few pet carriers in the corner of a garage seems a long way from the fully kitted out hospital and newly built this year separate off treatment rehabilitation wing. Desk lamps and a wonky hand built table served in those early days along with scrounged hutches. Now the luxury of three prep and examination surfaces, office strip lighting, multiple incubators and magnified examination lights are the order of the day. Of course this hasn't happened over night and a number of revamps and upgrades of the hospital facilities have taken place over the years culminating in this new build. Nothing is ever handed on a plate and it has been a case of hard work and dedication to see the rescue progress to meet the demands put on it and the standards that we strive to work to.

The first year, if my memory serves me well saw maybe forty or so hedgehogs through the doors, the next over a hundred and then as we became better known the flood gates opened with over 320 hedgehogs through the doors in 2014 and already heading towards 250 in 2015 and it is only August. At any one time there can be up to 120 hedgehogs in the rescue and with foster carers. (which reminds me that many pages on the website need to be brought up to date!)

 

 

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2015 has been (or rather starting in the end of 2014) a land mark year. Fundraising was started in late 2014 to add new flooring, lighting and electrics into the main hospital and to build a purpose built rehabilitation wing with the added benefit of a storage area to house the food and everything else that until then had to be stored in the house.

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It has been a long haul and there are too many people and organisations that have helped over the months since the initial concept to thank individually. In late 2014 the foundations went down for the new building. Those sat there for quite some time until we had reached targets and could get companies to agree to dates for the actual build. Once built there was the interior fit out; pens and work surfaces, flooring, the electrics to go in and finally the path to be laid and the opening of the rehab unit. The main hospital also had to be emptied (while still operating) to allow us to lay the new floor in there, fit the new lighting and electrics, extend work surfaces and indeed extend even this area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It has been both exciting and depressing to see the work progress. Exciting as new things happened and depressing when nothing was happening and our home and garden felt like living in a building site. There is still a long spoil pile from the works but this will morph (with some hard graft) into three habitats allowing us to show what can be created in gardens for wildlife.

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In early 2015 Dan our resident blind hedgehog that had been with us for four years died of old age adding to somewhat of a down time for us. However Dan had lived a good life in our secure garden which was managed for him and he was at least seven years old if not eight or nine. But like the original blind hedgehog that started this crazy journey, Dan also left his legacy in people voting for the new wing to be named Dan Dan's Lodge.

Saturday 22nd August 2015 saw the official opening of Dan Dan's lodge with many supporters and volunteers attending the opening along with local press and dignitaries. A few days later the first off treatment hedgehogs moved out of the main hospital into the new rehabilitation wing on their last steps towards return to the wild. In the last couple of days a nursing sow and hoglets has been admitted into the quieter area of the rehabilitation wing, another of its purposes to house maternity pens.

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Jayne and I would like to thank everyone who has supported us and who in many different ways and levels has made the refurbishment of the main hospital and build of Dan Dan's Lodge possible. Whether you donated, fund raised, sent items or gave time we appreciate it and we could not have achieved it without your support.

Willows aims stand the same as they have since we started- the Rescue, Rehabilitation and Release of the UK's native European Hedgehog as well as raising Awareness and delivering Education to help create a better future for our only native spiny mammal.

 

Some more photographs from the period of the build to the final opening in August 2015.

Charlie 2015

 

 

30DaysWild

The Diary of the Humble Hedgehog.

 

This month of June The Wildlife Trusts are running a wonderful initiative #30DaysWild

The aim- to ask people to do something wild every day for the month of June and to make nature a part of their lives.

I along with many others have been posting wild things to do outdoors in order to encourage a connection with nature. This below is something different. Something that will hopefully make you think about the effect we have on wildlife in our gardens where everyday should be wild and safe for our wildlife.

 

If hedgehogs could write diaries.

30 Wild days / 30 Hedgehog Entries

These are real admissions and real circumstances of finding here at Willows from this month of June.

They are a fraction of the total number of June admissions.

Date 30th June 2015- Admissions this month so far 70

 

 

#Day1- June 1st. June

My story here started on the first of June when I was found walking around in the middle of the day. I had been feeling poorly for some time and had been loosing a lot of weight.

I was lucky to be found by people that knew that something was wrong and I was picked up and taken somewhere where there are lots of other hedgehogs that need help.

I am getting better now but I would like you to read some of the stories of other hedgehogs here and to see what you can do to make our lives better.

Over the next thirty days, thirty hedgehogs will tell their stories. These are only a few stories and many, many more can be found here 2015 Admissions

 

#Day2- June 2nd. Rosewood

I traveled my usual route tonight through the gardens I love to visit checking out potential places to rest or make a summer nest and of course foraging for food. One of the gardens has, I think it's called a dog that comes out snuffling around. Normally the dog isn't around when I arrive or if it is I sit quietly and it doesn't bother me.

Tonight I knew something was different. The dog came over and I curled up into a ball as it sniffed around me. Then all I felt was pain as I felt the dog sink its teeth into me. It kept on biting until the human stopped it and picked me up. I am so scared that I cannot stop shaking and I am starting to feel very cold.

I am being taken somewhere and I am still shaking, I cannot stop. Something has made the pain stop and I can feel warmth but I am so tired and can't stop shaking. I don't think that I can stay awake any longer. (I died the same night).

 

#Day3- June 3rd. Quilley

I have been feeling very very poorly for a long time. I can't breathe very well and I have been coming out in daylight which I know I shouldn't do but I feel so poorly. I don't want to eat, I can't eat because I can't breathe.

Some humans spotted me a couple of days ago and I hoped that they might be able to help me. They watched me for a while but left me alone. Now I am feeling even worse. It is an effort to move and I have come out again in daylight and laid down on the short grass. This time the humans spotted me and picked me up, but I think that it is too late.

I have been taken somewhere that is very bright and have been given something that makes my breathing a little easier. I am now in a strange nest that is white and that makes a strange humming sound. It is warm in here which is good as I feel cold. I think I would have felt a lot better if I had been in here a few days ago but now all I want to do is sleep. (I will sleep tonight and never wake up again).

 

#Day4- June 4th 

I have been struggling to find somewhere to make a home to bring my children up. The places I go although I can manage to forage around don't have anywhere that I can make a home. I knew that time was getting short and that if I didn't find somewhere soon my newborns would be in trouble. Yesterday I found a pile of plastic bags next to a big gas canister and I gave birth to my beautiful babies. I was so proud of them and sad that I couldn't find a better home for them.

Then something happened. Our whole home was lifted up into the air and tipped over. I fell out and so did my new babies. One of them I am sure is dead and I can't let whatever this is have the others.

We have been taken somewhere and given a strange smelling nest. My children are so small that nothing else can raise them but me.

My children have been put in the nest with me but I fear for them and the only thing that I can think to do to protect them from whatever is out there is to kill them. At least then they will be safe.

Today I killed my own children.

 

#Day5- June 5th

 We have been here (wherever that is) for two days now. It is warm and food is plentiful and my children are doing well. It is strange here but I feel safe and we are going to make the most of it.

To think that only two days ago we had a beautiful family home among thick shrubs in a garden that I have known most of my life. I had built a lovely home taking care to make it the best place I could to raise my little ones. Things were going great and my four lovely little ones were already coming up to a week old. Then during the bright time of day there was a lot of noise and shaking and our whole home was ripped away from above. Everywhere as I far as I could see was flat, all of the places I love to sit under gone. My babies were calling in fright, they couldn't be exposed like this. I thought that I was going to loose them.

That was two days ago and now we are somewhere else, taken there and the animals there have given us a nest and me food and they leave us alone. I don't know what is going to happen but I have to concentrate on my babies who are getting bigger every day.

 

#Day6- June 6th

Where's mum?

Me and my brothers and sisters can still smell her in the nest but we can't find her. We had only known her for a few hours and then something happened and she ran away and she hasn't come back. Her smell is fading and we can't see or hear yet and we are so small and everything feels so big and me and my brothers and sisters are afraid and very very hungry.

We have cuddled up together to try and keep warm and everyone is hungry and feeling cold and scared. Our home is feeling very cold now and I miss my mum. I am scared.

Some humans I think they are called, have tried to look after us and have put us in a big shiny white nest that is warm and has soft things to snuggle in. But, we are just too small and only a few hours old and need our mothers milk.

Two of my brothers and sisters have all gone quiet and cold and still but tomorrow our mum will be found and brought to us, although we don't know that yet. She will be a little distant but she will start to let us feed.

 

#Day7- June 7th

It wont be long now. I can feel myself putting on weight and I am having to work so hard to get my, or as it is to soon be 'our' home ready.

So much to do collecting everything I need to make a home and finding time to make sure that I have enough weight to look after my little ones when they come.

Tonight I had a scare. I was out early looking for some food and busily collecting more materials to make our home as snug and safe as I can when a dog started bothering me. It just wouldn't leave me alone, barking, pouncing, nipping. I was terrified but luckily it hasn't hurt me but I do so hope that it doesn't bother my little ones when they start to grow up.

 

#Day8- June 8th Michael

It hasn't been fun lately. I haven't seem my mum or my brothers and sisters for days.

We were so happy and now our eyes were open and we could see and hear everything too we were having a great time. My brothers and sisters loved to play, we would climb over each other and ruff and tumble and all try to get to mum first to get her attention.

Mum said that we would start to go out with her soon we were all so excited. But something happened and mum didn't come back. We waited and called for her too scared to leave the nest and mum had told us not to leave anyway, it wasn't safe to.

But I couldn't wait, I needed mum and I was getting so hungry. I went to see if I could find her and I couldn't. I walked further and further until I was lost and cold and hungry. I curled up and fell asleep in front of the big human houses. There was nothing to hide under so I fell asleep on the step.

The humans found me and now I am in another nest but on my own. It is warm and the humans there feed me and I am getting bigger and stronger. But I don't have my brothers and sisters or mum to snuggle into.

The humans feel and smell warm but strange. They are gentle with me like mum was and their strange feet feel soft when they hold me to feed me. It's a little scary but I'm getting used to it. Wonder where mum and my brothers and sisters are. Wish they were here.

 

#Day9- June 9th Heart

The place I lived in is fantastic or it was until tonight.

There are fields and big gardens that have lots of places to forage and find food and make nests. I have been looking around for somewhere to think about maybe making a family home and there are loads of places.

Tonight I was out and about searching for food and enjoying the nice evening when I saw something shiny and went to have a look. Then something terrible happened the cold shiny thing bit me and my front leg was trapped and l could feel it biting into me.

I pulled and pulled and eventually got my leg free and I tried to run off but my front leg wouldn't work properly and I can feel that it is wet and I see can inside it.

It is hard to walk and I can't dig to forage. I don't know what is going to happen now.

I over heard the humans in the place I have been taken talking about my leg. They are very concerned and have talked about a prickly thing that will make me very sleepy for a long long time, for ever they said. I'm not sure what they mean but I'm going to be OK I'm sure.

(In a couple of days I will find out that my leg can possibly be saved. Sadly in a couple of days I also abort my unborn hoglets in the rescue because of my injuries)

 

 

#Day10- June 10th Elva

I have been around for longer than I can remember.

The younger hedgehogs would call me a veteran and I know that I have done well. A lot of hedgehogs don't even get to be three years old, many don't even reach two! I have been lucky in visiting a garden where the humans put food and water out which I really appreciate.

I'm still going strong though but recently things have taken a turn for the worse and I today find myself away from my lovely garden habitat and in a hospital. I didn't even know such things existed or that I would ever need one.

I was sleeping under my favourite bush when I heard a noise and the ground shook. A thump. thump sound. It kept on coming closer & I could feel the ground being dug up and then I was hit with something on my nose. They didn't see me and now I have a cut above my eye, some of my spines are broken and my nose has swollen up and is misshapen. It is also getting difficult to eat.

I spent some time under a very bright white sun on a cold hard surface while another animal felt my nose checking it all over. I think it knows that something is wrong. I hope it can help.

(Sadly I will soon find out that my snout and pallet are badly fractured and I will sleep and not wake up again).

 

#Day11- June 11th Dale

I have been where ever I am for three days now but my story started several days ago.

I was asleep where I always sleep, in among the long grass under the shrubs. My home is cosy, dry and I feel safe there.

A few days ago I was fast asleep during the bright time when something disturbed me, a loud whizzing, whirring noise. I hoped that it would go away but it didn't, it kept coming closer and closer until I could hardly hear anything else... and then, the pain.

Something sliced into the back of my head and then the whizzing, whirring noise started to move away. Something felt terribly wrong.. Over the next few days I started to feel incredibly poorly and flies started to land on me, they flew around me and laid eggs on the back of my head where it feels strange. I think the back of my head smelled quite bad too. I felt wobbly and couldn't walk properly and I started to walk around during the bright time which is frightening. Some of the big two legged creatures saw me but went away and left me. I try to stay away from the two legged creatures but I needed help. A few days later I was hardly able to walk and it felt as though things were eating me alive. I can't remember well but I think I was outside in the bright light and that time some of the big creatures picked me up and took me to where I am now.

The creatures where I am now spent a long time washing the wriggling things out of where my head feels funny. I could feel something cool where it hurts and there was a different smell. They have also been jabbing me and I can feel something cold going inside me. For a while after this happens I don't feel quite so bad. They have also been helping me to eat, I've been to weak to try to eat. I felt really cold and very ill and collapsed yesterday even though I think the two legged creatures were trying to help. I thought that I was going to die. I can hazily remember being put into a large white clean humming nest that smelt strange.

Today I work up in the strange humming nest and I feel a little bit better, I can stand up and move around a little and I don't smell quite as bad. I could sit up while they fed me this morning. I even gave two legs a little nip this morning when I was being fed.. just to let him know!

 

#DAY12- June 12th Hobb

Today is the first time that I have slept in the wild for some weeks.

A few weeks ago I was up and about in the dark time visiting the same gardens that I always visit. I had visited a few gardens and had just gone into another one to forage when I realised that I could smell one of the animals that seem to like to make a home with the the two legs.

Normally they don't bother me and leave me alone. If they are around I stay still and if they come close to sniff at me I curl up into a tight ball and raise my spines. Most of these animals have a sniff and then go away.

This night this one started to paw me and then picked me up with its teeth.and started trying to bite me. Luckily my spines protected me from the worst of the bites and I think that the sniffing animal was hurt more than me.

I was picked up and taken to somewhere that smelled of a lot of hedgehogs. I had been bitten and after the shock of being pawed and snapped at passed I could feel the bites. I stayed in the strange hedgehog nest with lots of other hedgehogs that I could hear and smell but never saw, although I could just see the tip of another hedgehogs nose sticking out from its nest when the two legs carried me and changed my nest every night. I was there for what seemed like a long, long time. I counted at least thirty bright times during my stay.

Late last night I was shown a special home that has been provided for me in a garden but a different garden from where the snapper was, I can't smell him. I went out and explored this new area and foraged in a lot of new gardens. I returned to the new nest and have slept the bright time away feeling safe. I am so happy to be back where I can smell the grass and forage for the food I like. I can't wait for it to get dark!

 

#Day13- June 13th Puddle

Last night I slept somewhere that smelled strange and I am not sure of where I am, but unlike the night before I wasn't soaking wet and paddling for my life!

I was foraging in the gardens I travel every night looking for food and places to rest up for a while and have a scratch (which I am extremely good at and can almost reach the middle of my back with my back leg!), when I wandered over to a pond for a look and a drink.

Somehow I slipped down into the pond. I wasn't too worried because I can swim quite well and just needed to find the slope to climb out. The problem was that there wasn't one, I searched and searched and scrambled and scrambled, but I couldn't get out. I was starting to feel very cold and tired and I was finding it harder to find the energy to keep afloat or awake.

Luckily then one of the two legs came along and picked me out of the pond. I thought that I was safe then but I was put in the sun on the lawn and left there. The sun did start to dry the wet but I needed a lot more help and being out in the sun made me even more scared, I can also get sun stoke in the sun and die. After a couple of hours I was picked up again and put under a bush where the two legs thought I should be.

I started to wander around as I didn't feel right, I was exhausted and disorientated. At some point a dog found me and I just couldn't think of what to do. I didn't ball. I was so confused and I was bitten on the nose, my ears and my back.

I was really scared now and disorientated and found that I had wandered back into the pond. I spent most of the bright time (when we normally sleep) struggling to stay afloat and I was found when the bright time was not so bright clinging to some plants in the pond.

This time I was taken to where I am now. A place that smells of lots of hedgehogs and with two, two legs that also smell slightly like hedgehogs as well as smelling like two legs do. I got jabbed last night but not like the dog bites and since I have been in a very warm nest and given food.

I didn't eat that much last night because everything has been so scary and strange, I have nearly drowned twice and been bitten all over by a dog. Hopefully I will start to feel a bit better soon.

 

#Day14- June 14th Name Unknown

I felt pretty lucky as a hedgehog, or I did.

On my 'patch', the area that I roamed every night I had a big area where lots of two legs grow food. Most of the places here were good to find the things I like to eat as the two legs don't use the things that kill insects.

Several nights ago I was foraging when I wandered into a net that they use to protect some of their food. Some of the nets weren't a problem as they were above my head or really tight. But this net was low and crumpled on the ground.

I tried to get out but as I did my spines got caught and the more I twisted around the more the net wrapped around me. I got frightened and tried harder and harder to get out and the more the net tightened. I was totally wrapped in it and when having a really good go at getting out I felt one of my back legs pull, I felt a pop and then I couldn't move it, it just dangled like it wasn't mine anymore.

I hoped that one of the two legs would come along, free me and get me help- but they didn't. I can't remember how long I was in there but the bright time came and went several times. I started to feel very hungry and weaker and weaker. Flies started to land on me and lay their eggs. As the bright times came and went the fly eggs started to hatch and I could feel the wriggly things all over me. They went into mouth and my eyes and in the cuts caused by the netting when I struggled.

I was finally found today and I have been taken to somewhere where two legs try to help hedgehogs that are in trouble, but I am too tired, too weak, too ill and too injured to stay awake anymore.

 

#Day15- June 15th Simon, Bill & Kate

Things are strange today.

I don't think that we have been around that long but me, my brother and sister have been very happy in our home with mum. She had made a lovely, cosy, safe home for us out of grass and leaves. It was close to where some, I think she called them two legs live but they are only around in what mum called the bright time and we weren't old enough to come out of our home anyway.

Mum did leave us for short times but she came back quickly so that she could keep us warm and because we get hungry very quickly.

This bright time something happened that scared our mum. We can't see or hear yet and won't be able to for a while but we felt like the leaves and grass that our home is made out of were gone and we felt colder. Mum went away and the grass and leaves came back down.

We snuggled into each other knowing that mum would be back soon... but she didn't come back. We waited for ages trying to be brave and stay quiet but it was scary and we were hungry and getting cold because we are too small to keep ourselves or each other warm so we started calling for her.

After a long while I think what mum called the two legs came and lifted us and most of our nest up and we went in something very noisy that grrrrrr'd and then we came here to a new nest. I think that if the two legs hadn't done that we would have died.

This nest makes a purrr sound and smells strange but it is warm and snuggly inside and we are feeling a bit warmer. We are hoping that we get some food soon! 

We are hoping that we get to see mum again but I don't know if we ever will.

 

#DAY16- June 16th Fliss, Chip, Dale, Gadget & Zipper

It's hard tell tell exactly how long I have been here as I am not able to leave my present nest. As the light from the bright time does come into here I think there have been about thirty bright times.

All of this started when I was out foraging travelling through the same gardens as I do every night. I had come to and was looking around for food in the one garden where the two legs have a four legged waggy animal called a dog (I think). This particular waggy is often around and I could recognise its smell and I could smell it before I went into the garden. If it was around I just carried on foraging for food and if it came near I would stop and tuck my head down and it always went away.

This dark time it didn't. It started to pounce and snap and roll me. It managed to bite in between my spines and got me several times. I must have un-balled a little in pain as I found that it was biting one of my paws and that the bites really hurt.

The two legs saw what was happening and they picked me up and brought me to here, where I have been since. I have a home and fresh bedding everyday and food. It isn't like being in the wild but I think that these two legs have been making me better.

What the two legs didn't know was that I was just pregnant when they waggy got me. I gave the two legs a bit of a surprise here when a couple of days ago I gave birth to my beautiful, Chip, Dale, Gadget and Zipper. My little ones are doing well and although I try to stay away from two legs I do feel safe here so I am raising my children as I don't think that they will harm them. My little ones will need me for about forty bright times. I hope that the two legs know this.

 

#Day17- June 17th Damsel

Hedgehogs don't like the bright time and we don't come out in it. We don't feel safe, other animals can see us and a lot of our food is easier to find in the dark time. Even in the dark time we like to be under cover and when we have to cross a big open space we often do it really quickly unless we feel really safe there.

Yesterday I went out in the bright time. There are only three reasons that a hedgehog might come out in the bright time either the nest has been disturbed and then we will quickly find something to hide under, we are very poorly or injured or in my case we are pregnant. I came out earlier yesterday as the bright time at the moment lasts a really long time so I needed the extra time with the dark time so short to find leaves and grass to make my nest better and to get some extra food.

Some of the wierd spineless two legs spotted me and they picked me up and took me on a journey. When we got there some other two legs that smelled a bit like hedgehog checked me all over, making the weird sounds I think they talk to each other with. Then the first two legs took me back and let me go just as the dark time was starting.

Phew, I am glad that I am back here as I can get on with getting ready for my family. I am also glad that the two legs looked after me as well though because I know now that if I am in trouble they know what to do. That if I am out in daylight they should help me and I'd rather be helped if I'm out on daylight but found to be OK as I could have been in real trouble. I'm also happy that the two hedgehog smelling two legs could tell that I wasn't in trouble (I think they knew that I would be having little ones soon).

 

#Day18- June 18th Hercules

I'm no Spring Hedgehog, I have been around for quite some time now and I have seen a few of the long sleeps when food is hard to find and it gets too cold for me to be up and about.

When I stop to take a drink in puddles or from bowls left out by the two legs I can see that I have pink bits on my nose and my feet which once were brown and the older I get the more of these pink bits there are.

Recently I started to feel quite poorly and it seemed to be coming from inside me. It wasn't like getting injured and I couldn't see what was wrong but I knew that something was wrong.

The bright time before this one I found myself feeling pretty unwell and I did something that we hedgehogs never do unless something is wrong- I came out in the bright time and after a while I curled up into a ball to sleep right outside one of the two legs nests.

I was found by the two legs and picked up in the air and taken on a journey. The two legs where I am now seemed to be very interested in my poo for some reason and after looking at it through a strange thing, they have started to give me something. I still don't feel right but the weird feeling inside feels a bit different now and I ate a whole bowl of food today that they seemed to know that I would like.

I'm not sure how many of the very long sleeps I have left but I hope I am back out there soon.

 

#Day19- June 19th Cybele

Yesterday was very very scary.

I did something that I have never done before, I went out in the bright when the strange hairless two legged animals are around. I see them sometimes at night but I stay close to the edges of things and I don't think that they see me.

I found myself out in the bright because something felt wrong and I didn't know what to do. I found myself wandering along a black river but this river was hard and massive growling bad smelling animals came past me very very quickly. I don't think that these strange animals saw me. I huddled close to the edge of the river and followed the little bank but the black hard river was very long and seemed to have no end.

One of the hairless creatures must have seen me and I found myself going up into the air and then when I unballed I found myself in one of their gardens, I think they call them.

I was now very scared, the black river creatures scared me, being out in the bright scared me and I started to move as quickly as I could around the garden.

What happened next you wouldn't believe. I was put inside of  something and then it sounded like I was inside one of the big smelly growlers.

When I came out of the box I found myself here. It is a strange place but there seem to be other hedgehogs. I have been put into a nest and I have food and water. I don't feel right still but I have felt safe enough to have a dream time.

 

#Day20- June 20th Bilberry

Today I am in a strange smelling big nest inside another nest. There are lots of nests here from the little I have seen but I have been feeling so weak and tired that everything seems strange to me.

It started quite a few dark times ago. I started to feel quite poorly in my tummy and after a few dark times I just didn't want to eat anymore. The less I ate, the more strange I felt until in the last bright time I wandered out into the bright.

I normally visit a load of gardens to forage but this time I went out and followed the black river I have heard other hedgehogs talks about. In the dark time the black river has creatures moving on it with very bright eyes but the eyes are so bright you can't see the animals. In the bright time the creatures are very strange and they growl at lot. I didn't care because I felt so poorly and I just wanted to find help. I'd heard that hedgehogs sometimes visit the black river and never come back. I hoped that it wasn't true or that those hedgehogs find and go somewhere brilliant, too good to come back.

After a while I couldn't carry on and I just laid down on the black river hoping that something good would happen. That's when the long animals picked me up and brought me here. Since then I have been in a very warm nest and given food and water but I just can't seem to get up and I have just been laid here only half aware of what is happening. I'm tired now and sleep seems good, so I'm going to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

News from the Farm

When Four lucky hedgehogs....

...went to live in the countryside

 

About More than Rescue

Here at Willows Hedgehog rescue we are about far more than simply the rescue, rehabilitation and release of our native European Hedgehog, if indeed that wasn't time consuming or involved enough.

Jayne (Willows Hedgehog Rescue) Adrian (Rush Farm)

We work very hard on awareness and education working to bring the decline of wildlife including the hedgehog to the public attention and encouraging action that can make a positive difference for the future.

This takes many forms from recognising when a hedgehog needs help to making changes in the garden to increase their fortunes. Another aspect is the impact that modern farming practices have had on our native wildlife since the second world war. The drive for greater efficiency by the producers (once known as farmers) and indeed the seeming consumer veracity for more, cheaper and 365 day a year availability of produce (once called food) ignoring any seasonality.

In 2013 we became aware of a project to preserve and put into community ownership a 150 acre, wildlife rich, ethical working farm in the heart of Worcestershire and a short drive from Willows Hedgehog Rescue.

The Farm that inspired

The Archers.

After looking into the history, management objectives and future aims of the farm and on speaking to members of the board mainly Sebastian Parsons and Adrian Parsons we realised that the farm embodied the ethics we held dear. Ethics of local farming, managed bio dynamically in harmony with the natural world. 

We took the decision to make a small personal investment allowing us to be a part of supporting the farm and to be involved with it's future.

Rush farm is a 150 acre mixed farm (and the original inspiration for the BBC Radio 4 'The Archers') which includes 22 acres of woodland.It is ran byodynamicaly, is organic, sustainable, low impact and wildlife rich. Under HLS (Higher Level Stewardship) the farms aims and objectives include:

• Wildlife Conservation
• Maintenance and enhancement of landscape quality and character
• Natural resource protection
• Protection of the historic environment
• Promotion of public access and understanding of the countryside

 

 

 

 

There are a number of objectives for Willows Hedgehog Rescue and the partnership with Rush Farm.

We in order to provide better information to the public wish to know more about farming practices and especially those which are beneficial to wildlife (and ultimately us). We wish to promote ethical wildlife harmonious methods of farming, local produce and community. We hope at some point in the future to work together in delivering education from the farm. We also wish to create environments that may help in reversing the decline of the hedgehog in the countryside. While it is fairly easy for people in towns and cities to make small changes that are beneficial and with many doing so can have large scale impacts it seems more difficult to change things in the countryside where it appears that hedgehog decline is even more serious.

Covering the county of Worcestershire hedgehogs are admitted from both urban and countryside areas to us here at Willows. Where possible the hedgehogs once treated and rehabilitated will go back to the area admitted from, however on occasion there are reasons that preclude this. There are many reasons, it could be that the area is undergoing massive development and the hedgehog was injured through this. It could be from poisoning and we can't be assured that the poisons aren't still there. It can be a litter of hoglets where because of diminishing populations and the risk of inbreeding only a proportion of the litter will go back to the original location.

Saturday the 9th of May saw a landmark date in our relationship with Rush Farm.

The farm had rather excitedly informed us in 2014 of hedgehog sightings on the land and this was a very important piece of information to us beyond being pleased that hedgehogs were there.

It meant that the farm was a suitable release site for hedgehogs that could not go back to the finders. We will not release hedgehogs into areas where hedgehogs are not known. There is a reason that they are absent and our ethics demand that on release the hedgehog is released with the best possible chances of survival. This is why we ask all finders to whom we return hedgehogs to put in a hedgehog home, to provide water and supplementary food and to talk to neighbours about making their gardens suitable and safe for hedgehogs.

Indeed before the releases of the four orphaned hoglets/juveniles and now grown adults this month Rush farm even though wildlife friendly with woodland and hedgerow made and installed four hedgehog homes on the farm.

On Saturday evening Jayne and volunteer Karen traveled over to the farm to meet Adrian for the release of Pig, Gnasher, Hazel and Dew, four 2014 hoglets and now all healthy adults ready to start their lives in the wild.

They were released into two parts of the farm with hedgehog homes provided if they wish to use them. Initial release saw them move into the hedgehog homes however they will make their own choices of moving nest or continuing to use them. They have been tagged for future identification so hopefully we will be able to track the fortunes of these four hedgehog orphans from four separate litters raised here at Willows.

It can be quite an emotional thing releasing hedgehogs back to the wild. The fact that there was a need for them to come to us in the first instance. In these four hedgehogs cases having to be hand raised from hoglets and overwintered due to the onset of winter. The need for them to return to the wild and yet the knowledge that there are dangers however well chosen a release site. For volunteer Karen this was her first experience of release normally volunteering with us in the hospital cleaning and feeding the hedgehogs. However the farm really does provide the best that we could hope for and on a significant scale.

The releases do not represent the start of a specific 'hedgehog area' or reserve if you will and they are not an exercise in population expansion. What they do represent is the ability of farmed land to provide suitable habitat for wildlife including hedgehogs proved by the fact hedgehogs are already living and foraging on the farm. For the already present hedgehogs it does add to the available gene pool and for these four hedgehogs it represents a second chance in life in an area rich in habitat and food. Land that is worked for human needs but that does not set itself apart from nature or ignore that we can and indeed should share our world with wildlife, most of which including the hedgehog having been around far longer as a species than humans have.

(left Dew on admission, Right release)

We would like to thank Adrian, Sebastian and all the Rush Farm team for their support of Willows Hedgehog Rescue and more importantly hedgehogs and for ethics and wildlife in general.

We hope that the examples set by the farm and its management are embraced by many more of the UK's land owners and in so doing provide for a better future for our wildlife, livestock and ultimately for us.

You can find more information about Rush Farm here Rush Farm Stockwood

More information about us here Willows Hedgehog Rescue

 

Charlie Willows Hedgehog Rescue

The future of the humble hedgehog

 

At the time of initially writing this It was hedgehog awareness week an initiative started by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society a charity formed in the 1980's to bring the decline of the European Hedgehog in the UK to the public's attention raising awareness and funding research.

Over the years many Hedgehog rescues have become involved booking events to raise awareness over this week and the media also join in printing articles and stories.

For this Hedgehog Awareness week I thought that I would take the time to put some of my thoughts down on the plight and future of our beloved and iconic hedgehog.

Post writing this there has been a lot of media attention around our native hedgehog and its decline and some rather sensational headlines including extinction in 10 years. So read on...

 

Straight Talking 

I am, as anyone who has been to one of my talks, or met us at events or indeed follow us on Social media, a quite forthright, outspoken and passionate character. I don't always go with the flow and I don't just agree with something because other organisations are doing it.

My background originally was 22 years in local, then regional and for 18 of those years national publishing.

During that time I was also an avid naturalist and surveyor for the Bat Conservation Trust and other organisations.

A good number of years ago I left publishing and retrained in Environmental Conservation since working with the natural world every day. Six years ago I along with my better half set up Willows Hedgehog Rescue a rescue that has grown every year and well beyond our original expectations.

 

Hedgehogs are big news at the moment and this is very welcome. There are various initiatives raising awareness and there have been a number of studies that will hopefully bare useful fruit. However...there is already an enormous wealth of knowledge out there which nationally never seems to be acknowledged or incorporated into any research, or consulted, in fact I would say is in reality totally ignored. A wealth of knowledge from people running rescues over many decades whether hedgehogs be newsworthy or not. fanfares seem to be blown anytime a new initiative comes along when rescues are sitting there thinking 'we know the answer to that if you asked' or 'we have been doing that for years without asking for loads of money or a hundred magazine articles'.

 

There are lots of pretty sensational headlines at the moment.

"Hedgehog decline on par with Tigers"

"Hedgehogs face Extinction in the next 10 years"

I'd rather we stayed on the topic of hedgehogs without comparing them to tigers.

Hedgehogs are NOT facing UK extinction, localised- yes. In serious decline- yes.

 

So, intake of breath time and lets look at what has changed and could have affected the fortunes of our native hedgehog. This is not putting down any kind of current research but human kind does seem to be very good at a few things- Putting off action and carrying out lots of studies until it is more or less too late. Ignoring the obvious. Causing catastrophic effects to our world in the name of progress. And naming things- well at least we can list the species we have lost because we have named them!

 

The Hedgehog- in simple terms:

A small nocturnal, solitary mammal. The UK's only spiny resident. An insectivore but with omnivorous tendencies. Native to the UK having been here since the last ice age.

Now lets do one of those wibbly wobbly television fades and go back lets say six decades.

Back in the Day..

What is different here? (In very simplistic terms)

Towns and cities are certainly smaller. There are far less vehicles on the roads and there are far less roads and super highways cutting the countryside up. The farmed landscape looks very different more that hazy summer day vision of our country with patch work fields, lots of hedgerow the air full of birdsong and the whirring and buzzing of insects. The fields apart from being smaller are also managed differently, not so intensively managed, crop collection isn't so efficient leaving spillage in the fields. Field margins are left alone. Fields have periods when they are not farmed. Farms are 'multipurpose'. The true full out war on wild life hasn't yet began.

In the towns gardens haven't yet been segregated with impenetrable fences and gravel boards. Front gardens haven't been sacrificed to house the shiny lump of metal- the car. I seriously remember on Sundays only seeing a couple of cars on the road.. there was an expression of 'getting the car out', the modern equivalent I think would be 'shall we walk?!'.

There are a good number of other differences but I think that this will suffice to see how the landscape then suited the hedgehog and what has changed since then that now causes the hedgehog problems.

Wibbly Wobbly screen effect and back to now.

2015

Look at any old reproduction map and a current map and you will see a staggering difference.

Where towns and cities were there can been seen swathes of 'countryside' in between with distinct boundaries. With the new map the towns are much larger, the villages in between swallowed up the boundaries blurred if indeed non existent. How many people of more advanced years living in the same house remember their house being down the lane from the main town or on the edge of fields but now find their house in the town several or dozens of roads away from the 'countryside'.

With expansion and the need to commute to work comes the road infrastructure. Rivers of tarmac slicing up what were field but are now housing estates. Multi lane motorways mean we can travel further, quicker (well OK quicker once!). Two lanes become three and now four lanes, each way!

Houses are packed into small areas with handkerchief sized gardens. The hedge is too much of a hassle to cut with our busy 24 hour lifestyles and the fence becomes the boundary of choice. Wood rots in proximity to the ground so fences sit on concrete panels segregating gardens. Gardens become living rooms, so they are decked for our use, plants arranged for our pleasure and minimal maintenance. Bugs sprayed ruthlessly in case they nibble a leaf. We strim, we mow, we thrash the grass into bowling green perfection. Now we have two, three cars maybe more. The drive is a necessity so at least half the front of the house is drive if not all. The road is full of parked cars so if there is a bit of green on the front it is converted to car parking. Open plan is the rage no front garden hedge.

Out there.. where ever or whatever the 'countryside' is where the farms are things have changed drastically too. Efficiency rules, big machines mean big fields so they can get around them right to those edges. The whole 'crop' is required so pesticides, herbicides, fungicides make sure that nothing else grows amidst the main crop and nothing is going to eat any of it for free! Fertilisers ensure that once everything has been collected in we can get something else straight back out there. Consumer greed and waste ensures maximisation of every resource and consumerism pushes down the price putting smaller farms out of business to be bought out by the corporate.

Enough! I could go on.. but lets not and lets relate this to the Hedgehog.

I will let you do the comparisons but for our hedgehog it means three main things...

Factors in Decline

Loss of food- Hedgehogs are primarily insectivores. Fields and gardens bombarded with chemicals to ensure that nothing eats any of our precious crops or planting. Indeed planting that offers no food source to insects. The disease of tidiness where fallen leaves and branches offer home to insects they offend our sense of order to be cut up bagged and disposed of.

Loss of Habitat- urbanisation of previous 'countryside'. Explosion in roads cutting up areas. Smaller gardens made inaccessible by impenetrable fencing. Tidy gardens with little room for wildlife. Removal of tens of thousands of miles of hedgerow in the countryside (and in gardens).

Increased Dangers- the very real prospect of injury from strimmers, mowers, forks, spades, chemicals, cars.

 There are other factors and research will I am sure bring new factors to light but if you are a hedgehog relying on insects as food and habitat in gardens and fields the above should be enough to make anyone realise that hedgehogs aren't going to do very well in a modern world.

So What do we do?

Well awareness is key and getting people to make small changes has the potential to make a massive difference. In fact a lot of beneficial changes for hedgehogs can be made quite easily by anyone.

We also study and this is some of where my bug bear comes in so prepare for what might be an inconvenient truth, may put some peoples noses out of joint, may seem critical.

Observe, Observe, Monitor, Study.. do little....

We study. We start initiatives (this is the wider ecological we) to great acclaim. We stick GPS backpacks onto study groups of hedgehogs, we stick down ink tunnels, we create 'hedgehog areas'. Now research is important and does bring new things to light so I welcome research but often it totally ignores what is already being done and what we already know. The wealth of knowledge that is already out there is ignored with rather the new project being acclaimed as 'a first, the thing that will save the hedgehog'. It isn't rocket science to understand that an insectivore will suffer with decline in insects or a species that relies on gardens will suffer from not being able to access them.

A wealth of knowledge and time served experts.

Taking into account all of the rescues around the country, some working for decades there is a wealth of knowledge, experience and data out there. Experts if you want. However they seem never to be consulted. As much as I have more qualifications than I can fit on most applications they mean little... working over many years in an area makes you the expert not letters. In fact I detest the term expert, I haven't stopped learning as yet and never will. Also carrying out a study over a few months doesn't compare to years and in some cases a lifetime of working with a species.

Lets take an example organisation A (and this is real) started a study into the dangers hedgehogs face. Excellent. We contacted them offering information. 'Ah no we aren't counting data from rescues we feel that this isn't relevant'.

I'm sorry? Just here at Willows over the last six years we have admitted well over a thousand hedgehogs. We can tell you how many come in with specific internal parasites, how many have been hit by cars, how many have been injured by gardening implements, how many have been poisoned, how many are orphans. I can simply tell you now that the majority of admission injuries and orphans are through gardening work. So me being simple me.. if I were to consolidate my efforts in changes and awareness to avoid the majority of injuries and orphans it would be on awareness in the garden. Involve and collect the data from all of the rescues around the country and the information would outweigh any project survey.

Where are the hedgehogs and where are they absent?

Rescues again although totally ignored in terms of data hold thousands, tens of thousands of records. The ones that are admitted obviously but a lot of rescues also collect data from the public of when they have seen a hedgehog. A massive resource of hot spots and absences. Also knowing the geographical area you work in means that a quick check tells you about that area... yes it's a area of 2000 new builds all with gravel boards blocking gardens off and three years ago before it went up we had sighting from the area now we don't

Schemes.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Peoples Trust for Endangered Species 'Hedgehog Street' is a fantastic initiative. Encouraging residents to ensure that their gardens are linked for hedgehogs. Something many people can do, for no costs and as the saying goes many hands make light work.

What about reserves?. Firstly you can't drop hedgehogs into reserves. Areas need to have a population to be viable otherwise there is a reason that hedgehogs are absent. Reasons that can't be mitigated by a bit of management, there are numerous reasons that hedgehogs may not be there. I am a member of the Wildlife Trusts, I have worked with both the Trusts and RSPB, I give talks to these organisations, in fact I am in the process of writing a piece for one of the trusts magazines.  I acknowledge that reserves are vital places but they are not the answer. They help conserve habitat and they create a focal point but in no way do I wan't to see hedgehog reserves and if you manage your reserves properly guess what you will already be providing habitat suitable for hedgehogs.

So rather than seeing 'flag ship' hedgehogs areas where the hedgehogs are with in reality limited impact beyond media spin I want to see the public encouraged and informed on how to make and link their garden habitats for the benefit of hedgehogs. The good news on this is that it requires no donation and as said before many hands make light work.The general public can do very simple things nationally making a massive difference rather than a constricted local project by a few individuals for possibly a short time period until good will or funding runs out. I also think that the public in general get very tired of the 'give us your money' approach.

The RSPB Homes for Nature project is one I fully support because it does not require you to send off some money it simply asks you to consider wildlife in your garden and shows you how. Ten out of ten to the RSPB.

So what am I ultimately saying here. There are a few things..

Hedgehogs are not on the brink of UK wide extinction. There are large areas of local absences but our native hedgehog is still here.

However lets not wait studying the decline of the hedgehog until they really are on the brink of extinction in the UK.

Lets please use common sense which tells us a lot of why and what we need to do to help hedgehogs right now.

Lets do research but not as the greatest discovery since sliced bread and at the expense of common sense, ignoring the obvious and already well known and getting on with actually doing something

Lets not use them as a great fundraising, in the public eye bandwagon species and try to 'conserve' them.

Lets all work together to inform and engage the public in a way that is FREE and where many people making simple changes makes a real difference on a far wider scale.

Lets recognise and celebrate the wealth and expertise of the people that work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year for hedgehogs.

Lets actually use the knowledge of long standing rescues and not try to rewrite the book every time someone has a 'new idea'. In fact there are no new ideas.. most things that hit the media have already been being done for years by rescues but without the need or want for publicity.

Lets look at things that really cause issues and work with companies and manufacturers to mitigate and bring awareness to those. It's no good winning a campaign to great applause to fix something that injures a few tens of hedgehogs a year when thousands are injured by something else.

Lets be honest hedgehog and tiger decline aren't comparable beyond the most tenuous similarities (although it makes a good headline). We still have hedgehogs around, the numbers that are admitted into rescues and the sightings we are given prove this. Yes they are in trouble, they are declining and if, if we don't do something we may well loose them in the UK or at best they will become a rarity and have massive areas of absence.

Lets look at the good news.

We don't need to build game reserves, we don't need to buy land, we don't need teams of armed rangers to protect them, we don't need to raise a £ million. All we need is for enough people to make small changes in their gardens and even better in their ethical choices and we can make a massive difference. One Willows supporter for example put a gap in the fence and a hedgehog home in and a few days later a hedgehog was visiting and made the hedgehog home its home.. imagine that ten, ten thousand times over. One small group wanting to make change might be able to plant a hundred trees in a day.. if everyone in Europe planted one tree that would be around 750 million trees planted in one day.. that is how we need to think.

 

Lets actually do something now to change the fortunes of hedgehogs not waiting until they become listed as endangered and lets do it in a way that is inclusive and in that everyone can make a difference.

 

Finally what do I see as important ways to change the fortune of hedgehogs in our towns and cities?

Educating the public in the plight of the hedgehog.

Educating the public in managing their gardens for all wildlife.

Ensuring that new build houses have hedgehog access through gardens and that existing house owners are aware of the difference a 5" gap makes.

Ensuring that gardeners and suppliers of gardening equipment are aware of and help reduce injuries to hedgehogs.

Making everyone aware that they can help change the future for hedgehogs today without having to join an organisation, without making a donation, with minimal effort and importantly for free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan

 

The story and ethics of a life

 

For a good number of our followers the name Dan is instantly recognizable.

Not because he was shown or turned into a pet but because he was a totally blind hedgehog given the chance of life. He isn't the only one, but Dan was known because our rescue garden had been turned over to, secured and managed for him.

Finders of injured or poorly hedgehogs when bringing them in would often point out of the patio windows and exclaim 'did a hedgehog just go past the window?'. 'Yes, we would reply, 'that is Dan', and so his story would be told.

To fully understand Dans story we have to travel a little further back in time, before the existence of Willows Hedgehog Rescue.

The beginning of Willows was brought about by what turned out to be a blind hedgehog. We had noticed for a while lots of droppings in the garden and initially not knowing what hedgehog poo looked like, the blame had been firmly put onto the local cats. However one day we noted a hedgehog entering the garden under the side passage gate. This continued and looking out for our prickly and much welcome visitor we realised that this hedgehog had taken up residence in our garden. There was an issue though. When (in the days when we had time to) having breakfast on the patio the hedgehog would wander up to our feet and happily feed in broad daylight.

This we knew wasn't right and the hedgehog now named Sonic (yes even our first hog was called Sonic) was taken to a rescue to be checked over. We were assured if it did turn out to be blind, that as long as healthy, and taking into account our reasonably sized garden already managed for wildlife, if secured the hedgehog could if treated as wild, live a life with us.

Sadly a couple of days later on checking for an update on Sonic's progress we found that the actual centre policy was to put to sleep any blind hedgehog and Sonic never returned.

This angered us and we conducted a lot of research, putting anger to positive use. We contacted and talked to many rescues all of which confirmed that they would have monitored and placed a blind hedgehog under the care of a secure garden. That started a process of us working along with another rescue and finally the founding of Willows Hedgehog Rescue. To date as of the start of 2015 we have admitted well over a thousand hedgehogs, the majority successfully treated and returned to the wild.

Running circles around a Police Officer.

On the 16th of April 2011 after Willows had been running for some time and on the 'date in question' (as I am sure the police would say), a hedgehog with very laboured breathing was admitted. The hedgehog was found by a police officer- out in daylight and going around in circles in the middle of the road.

This hedgehog had pneumonia and examination told us that he was totally blind which explained the circling. Treatment commenced for the pneumonia and admission 1604B1 became known as Dan. Dan as he was now, showed all the signs of already being three possibly four years old, an age that many hedgehogs in the wild do not reach. But despite his apparent age he was feisty and the treatment worked well. He was left with a wheeze but which didn't seem to hinder or bother him.

Once off treatment and well we decided to see how Dan would get on in our garden securing it so he couldn't wander off and into the dangers he had faced before as a hedgehog that had become blind.

New Horizons.

Initially Dan spent some considerable time testing the boundaries of his new environment and he was closely monitored to see if he would accept this reduced range of freedom.

If he had showed signs of continued stress and non acceptance of a secure environment then we would have taken the ethical decision to put him to sleep. However Dan got used to his domain and after a short while settled into in a very natural home that we had built for him. To any observer he would have seemed to be sighted not blind finding his way around with ease, the only sign to his lack of sight being his emergence at any time day or night. We were careful to not make drastic changes in the garden which would cause an issue to Dan. A forgetful movement of a planter would be followed by Dan bumping into it, however if the move was permanent then Dan would soon adjust and avoid the obstacle appearing as if he could see it.

Definite 'trails' were soon visible in the grass (managed at a various natural lengths to encourage insects) and Dan would find his way around the garden without any problems following his well trodden routes. We never handled him and he was left to be a totally wild hedgehog albeit in a smaller area than a sighted hedgehog would roam out in the true wild. He found favourite spots to rest for a while, foraged for natural food as well as eating his supplemented food and moved nest around the garden as he pleased. In warmer weather he nested under shrubs and in the winter returned to using the human provided and very snug hedgehog home.

He was observed visually from a distance for his own well being and for the pleasure of seeing him and twice a year he would come into the rescue hospital for a check up to ensure that all was well with him.

Adventures.

His life post being admitted did have its moments of adventure some of which left us with hearts in mouths.

There.. and glad to be back again.

On one occasion a slip of diligence from us resulted in the garden entrance being left unsecured for a short while. Dan was out and about and following his nose managed to wander out of the secure garden. We spotted that the normally secured gate was open and immediately search for Dan. Now Dan was always fairly easy to find as his slightly wheezy breathing would always give his location away but now all that emanated from the garden was silence. Immediately a street search was started and leaflets printed off and pushed though neigbouring streets letterboxes. While out searching reports started to come in of cars being stopped to let a chuntering and determined hedgehog pass. Dan was finally tracked down, wandering down a street around a quarter of a mile away. Back in the secure garden Dan seemed to be quite relieved making straight for his hedgehog home and settling straight down adventure over.

Dan even via us received some post asking as to his well being after his little excursion.

Interlopers in the secure garden.

Another occasion saw a rescued litter of three and at the time juveniles needing to be acclimatised ready to go back into the wild. At this point we had less outdoor acclimatisation runs and we took the decision to see if Dan would tolerate them for a short time in his garden. The situation would be monitored closely and at the first sign of any issues the juveniles would be removed. Hedgehogs are solitary and although not territorial they wouldn't normally spend much time around other hedgehogs.

We watched Dan closely to see his reaction and to our utter surprise he inspected the juveniles and started to forage with them especially the one with whom he spent many hours (reverting to being nocturnal as they being sighted were) sitting beside this one juvenile.

The juveniles after a short while went off for release and Dan resumed his old patterns. This experience however brought about an idea with a back leg amputee hedgehog. Back leg amputees weren't new to us but with the juveniles seemingly reverting Dan to a nocturnal lifestyle we thought maybe just try and see if Dan would accept the adult amputee. Again this was tested out under close observation with intervention to be made at the first sign of any confrontation or stress.

The amputee hedgehog was placed into the secure garden when Dan was out and immediately Dan's nose went into the air sniffing out the scent as he did when we were present in the garden. Dan now started to move purposefully towards this new scent, the new hedgehog balling as it saw Dan approaching. Dan suddenly turned his movement towards the amputee hedgehog into a run putting his snout down, making contact and rolling the very surprised interloper a good ten or so feet up the garden. We were left in no doubt what so ever than Dan was not going to tolerate another adult hedgehog in his domain and Dan from that day on was never expected to share his little piece of countryside.

Dan would tolerate us in the garden and we never made any moves to interfere with his routines. He would always raise his head and sniff when I went into the garden, noting my presence and I would always call out 'Hi Dan' just to let him know that I was around. He actions were always that of a wild hedgehog avoiding us rather than coming to us and if I did go over to him just to visually check his condition he would tolerate for a few seconds my presence and then move off chuntering away to let me know that my company was not really needed. That was exactly how we wanted Dan's life to be.

Hedgehog Highways and the family cat.

Even Bluey, our 15 year old British Blue rescue has not been spared Dan's ownership of the garden.

Bluey is the softest soppiest cat you can imagine and has never shown any interest in harming wildlife. He sits and watches woodmice not once trying to grab one but rather enthralled by their movement.

Now Bluey occasionally enjoys a good old snooze in the garden and on one particular day had chosen to sprawl out on one of Dan's regular routes. Dan as it happened was up and about and heading towards the prone form of Bluey. Dan slowed and sniffed as he reached the obstacle, Bluey opening one large Amber eye. An Amber eye that was to expand seemingly to the size of a dinner plate as Dan walked backwards and then charged. I have never witnessed a cat go from a sleepy prone position to several inches off the ground in such a seemingly impossibly small space of time. Dan obstacle removed continued at a leisurely pace on his way, Bluey settling down at a respectable distance from the hedgehog highway. 

Passing Years.

Each winter Dan would go into hibernation fairly early and the winter would seem a very long time wondering how he was doing during hibernation. A very cold winter brought some considerable worry to us wondering if he at his age would make it through but every year Dan would emerge and our spirits would lift.

However time was showing, his ears thickening, his spine colouration changing to more ginger and his blind eyes becoming very milky but he was as sprightly as ever and I certainly wondered if he would make it into double figures.

The winter of 2014/15 was not especially cold and Dan went into hibernation early as always. As usual we wondered when we would see him emerge and it seemed to be later than normal and we still hadn't seen him. Finally Dan did emerge but this time having lost a lot more weight than he had on previous years. However a couple of weeks later he was almost back up to the weight he was when he went into hibernation and fears were allayed. A couple of weeks later when filling Dans food bowls I noticed that his breathing had taken on a different note and at the first available opportunity when Dan was up and about I took him into the hospital for a check up. He had lost weight and his breathing was laboured. The decision was taken to treat in the hospital and monitor the situation due to his advanced years. Initial signs seemed promising but over the period of a couple of days he became less active and on the 12th April 2015 in the afternoon just four days short of four years with us Dan slipped away.

We are no strangers to death dealing with so many injured and ill hedgehogs but Dan although never treated as a pet and always left to be wild in his domain of our secure garden was very special to us and his death was and is a very emotion event for us. He has been buried under one of the shrubs he used to forage, sit and have a good old scratch under.

Dan was a veteran hedgehog. Most hedgehogs in the wild don't get to live beyond three years, Dan was with us for just shy of four years and judging his age when admitted was probably seven or eight years old. We are happy and honoured to have been able to give him as long a life as he had and always with his best interests at heart.

More than one life.

Finally, Dan stands for so much more than just one life. Dan stands for our most fundamental principles in giving life a chance. Always with ethics in mind and strictly monitored for any signs of stress but we know that animals can adapt given the right environment and for the right reasons. No healthy and able hedgehog would ever be kept from the wild but for a blind hedgehog such as Dan the alternative from death was a long and good life albeit in a secure garden managed for him.

The Ethics of Life.

There is at times considerable debate in the wildlife rescue community with regards to the 'ethics' of disabled wildlife being kept in a more confined environment. Rescues differ in opinion however we find the majority do prefer the opportunity of life over certain death unless the disability is unethically restrictive. Those on both sides of the fence tend to be rather vehement in their opinions

Each case has to be dealt with on an individual basis and with close monitoring to identify any signs of stress, It is sometimes muted that a human can' know whether an animal is 'happy'. The word happy is not really apt and any person working extensively with a wildlife species can easily identify and recognise behaviour that denotes stress in that species. Given the right environment and left to be wild in that environment allowing natural behaviour albeit in a smaller area wildlife with issues such as Dan can live a life free of stress and exhibiting natural behaviour.

Here at Willows we have a number of hedgehog friendly large wild secure gardens on our books owned by kind hearted people who believe in life and let the hedgehogs live without interference and a number of blind and three legged hedgehogs have and are living out wild lives without any stress. 

 

In 2015 a new extension wing of Willows Hedgehog Rescue providing post treatment rehabilitation accommodation was built and opened and named Dan's Lodge.

 

In memory of 'Dan Dan'

allowing us to share his garden

16/04/2011 to 12/04/2015

 

 

Thinking Small

Learned behaviour.

Once we start to 'grow up', whatever that means (I'm not entirely sure that I have ever really 'grown up') we are encouraged or some times almost bullied by societies expectations to; think bigger, look at the bigger picture, to aim for the stars and if you fall short at least you'll reach the moon.

You only have to look at 52" televisions; improbably large four wheel drive 'cars' (normally it would seem for urban use only and the benefit of one occupant), mobile phones now seemingly the size of hard back books so the latest blockbuster can be watched on it in HD. We are all bombarded by the global picture, we probably know more about what is happening thousands of miles away than we do about the issues in our local neighbourhood. In fact we will use social media to interact with people on the other side of the world and possibly don't even know our next doors neighbours name.

It seems also to be the same with the natural world (a term that I hate as it presupposes that there is an 'unnatural world'). The images you often see are of 'big country', big horizons, big animals.

We look up in awe at 'big' trees, marvel while catching our breath at the 'big hill' we have just walked up.

I have to admit I did the 'big thing' a couple of weekends ago. Looking for woodland to walk Jayne asked "where else is their locally that we haven't really been?". I then rolled off a few options adding 'but they are quite small', somehow indicating that it wouldn't be much of an outing.

Herding Ants

As a child and I think it was the same for most of my childhood pals my school was 'vast' the department store's toy section was enormous (especially at Christmas) but my world was small.

My play world consisted (mainly outdoors) of the orchard behind our family home. It held a myriad of 'worlds' depending on the theme of our adventure that day as well as our den built between trees and shrubs and roofed I seem to remember with some old roofing felt we have found and subsequently dragged there. Two dimensional houses were constructed out of mown grass on the field (and woe betide you if you stepped over a wall and didn't use the door!).

The world I inhabited when on my own was even smaller. Nose to the ground, often digging in cracks to force ants to stream out and then herding them with an old washing up liquid bottle filled with water creating minuscule rivers. Sometimes I have to admit to also trying to set fire to ants with my magnifying glass- it never worked they ran too fast.

I inspected everything on the ground and on one occasion presented my mother with some 'brilliant' small white chalky weird stones that turned out to be dog poo. 

That may have set a precedent as in the wildlife rescue we spend a lot of time cleaning out poo and looking at samples under the microscope for endo-parasites and on the flip side I look for signs of animal activity (including bats) by spotting their scat.

Now while you might not want to look out for badger latrines (let alone check consistency for clues as to food eaten) or rub small droppings between your fingers (crumbles to dust- Bat, squidgy- bad luck it's rodent!) then you may want to simply look a little closer at the ground or fallen trees and stumps or look for other foraging signs such as the cone above. 

A whole other world.

It does mean getting closer to the ground- something most adults seem loathed to do walking vast distances to find a bench. Well we don't want to get the North Face gear dirty.. one reason I avoid anything with a brand on it and pop off to the army surplus store.

But, once on the ground there is a whole fascinating world to be discovered and if you allow your imagination to traverse scale often more scenic and diverse than the landscape you have been noting while walking.

The interior of woodland is one of my favourite places to investigate the ground. Not only does it smell great, inhaling the earthy smell but it yields an amazing array of natural forms (most of which I couldn't name if I tried but that isn't necessary to enjoy it).

Mosses and algae on walls offer the same kind of diverse 'micro worlds', so you don't have to be in the middle of a field or wood to have the experience.

There are flowers down there, miniature ones too, but in truth while I note and appreciate those it is the myriad little forests of green that intrigue me and may possibly do the same for you if you get down close and sometimes dirty with the 'natural world'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I guess that the upshot of this is that big adventures can be had in very small spaces. With one parks service I spent days surveying a very small area of reclaimed previously industrial land and still hadn't documented everything that there was to see.

In fact in the most urban of settings these miniature worlds exist where the 'natural world' may not be so immediately evident- there in cracks and on walls for anyone that takes the time to look.

You may find yourself in a landscape that seems featureless on the grander scale but if your get closer to the ground you will most likely find feature rich landscapes in miniature and unlike the survey mentioned above there is no need or pressure to be able to name anything in order to enjoy it.

There is another benefit to getting closer to the ground.. you may be tempted to stop moving for and just sit for a while.

This morning while sitting in the woodland, back to a tree, bees humming past me I was aware of the occasional rustle less than a meter away in among the brown bracken. As I stood to leave a wren burst from the undergrowth now alert to my presence. However for probably three quarters of an hour that wren had shared that patch of woodland in very close quarters and that is worth more to me than seeing the rarest of species.

A Walk in the Woods

If there is one place that I feel at home; safe, relaxed, devoid of stress and generally not part of the 21st Century it is in the embrace of the mossy green interior of woodland.

 

I spend a lot of my spare time in the local woods for the peace away from the daily routine, for the wildlife and for the history of the landscape.

Traditional woodland management is a great interest of mine and sadly I do not have opportunity enough to practice those skills but while I might not often be carrying out woodland work I still enjoy reading the signs of previous uses. Coppices, neglected once laid hedges, banks, ditches, rides all tell the story of the woodland if you know how to read them.

Then there are other signs, signs of activity. As mentioned previously we rely on sight too much of the time. Walking along heads raised to spot the bird in the tree, chasing the butterfly to get a 'snap' on a digital camera, and maybe listening to the sounds of woodpecker drumming or chiff chaff overhead.

However the woodland tells a much wider tale if you let it and practice another kind of 'not seeing' the art of seeing what was there a few hours ago but now is tucked up away out of sight.

If you put the ability of being able to 'read' the topology of the woodland with the skill of reading the signs of wildlife then you can have an experience of a busy living landscape without having to actually 'see' anything.

Above is one of the routes of one of the nocturnal residents of the woodland, regularly in use as can be determined from the absence of new growth and animal not human from the direction it takes running under undergrowth that a human would have to go around.

 

Fresh rooting in the ground (above) tells a story and if you are lucky you may find a print in soft ground (left).

There are other trails to be found in the woods though that tell a much darker story.

 

Beware the Woodland Sprites lest they take you away.

While once folk law may have told of Sprites waiting in those remote places waiting to take you away now sadly the modern Sprite is more likely to be the remnant of a take-a-way.

While the residents of the wood may leave signs of their foraging and passing when no human is around for those with the interest to read them, humans also seem to like to leave signs for those that follow. Wildlife mark territories humans also leave their mark, their sign of ownership and of disrespect.

So how do we follow these signs that humans make? It really is quite easy.

Lets approach this remnant of ancient woodland (that also happens to be a National Nature Reserve [NNR] and Site of Special Scientific Interest [SSSI]), so we journey through the countryside and finally down a winding green lane...

 .. and there it is, the first sign to indicate the passing of people. The sad fact here is that the litter is in a carrier bag but then it would seem that the idea of transporting that bag away does not sit well.. maybe the car was nice and clean and the thought of litter even in a bag was not appealing.. much better to leave it on the roadside.

So we have our first indication of the human species. The signs as we proceed into the woods become far more clear and conclusive that our species is around.

Bears may poo in the woods (sadly not in this country any longer) and dogs certainly do.

Most dog owners do thankfully pick up their dogs mess and take it away. Some just leave it for others to step around and there is a third option for which I have never been able to come up with a explanation. The dog walker that picks the dog mess up... and then flings the bag into a bush or drops it off as here  to adorn a tree by the entrance gate.

And so the story continues, the view into the woodland is so much enhanced with a splash of red as I am sure the consumer of this beverage discerned. Worthless once the contents have been consumed and far too heavy and bulky to carry it away.

I could track my whole journey this morning but I am sure that you get the picture (and if you don't then the picture below documents the sum of litter collected today on my morning walk through England's green and pleasant land.

When I see this and how we treat our wildlife and 'wild' places.. with indifference and disrespect I truly feel ashamed to be part of the human race.

There is no need to leave 'our mark' in this way. People travel presumably to enjoy the beauty of a place and then despoil that very place with a lack of consideration that boggles the mind.

Litter is mindless, disrespectful and unnecessary at best. At worst it pollutes the environment and causes injury to wildlife and people.

 

 

The Importance of Not Seeing

To See is to Believe.

....the absence of pictures is intentional!

 

I recently replied to a tweet referring to the quiet of woodland pointing out that woodland is not quiet at all, day or night, it is rather noisy.

Through looking so hard we seem to forget our other senses and this also linked in with thoughts I had been having post another tweet on the subject of masses of people causing large scale disturbance to an Adder in order to obtain a photograph.

The pre-occupation with sight and with capturing it on a memory card as proof of the moment and for all to see.

 

Photography.

Everyone loves pictures, everyone loves showing you their photographs more and now and with so many social media outlets out there you can share your images with millions with a simple click. I trained among other things as a photographer, so I am not anti-photography at all but I will share my experience.

 

Getting the perfect shot.

Many is the day that I would venture out after many trades of photography equipment until I possesses a pretty good DSLR and a heftily priced lens, heftily priced for me anyway around £1,200 for, as photographers would put it- ‘the glass’. Without relating many tales it is safe to say that while I did gain some shots that I was very pleased with my ratio of ‘that was a wasted day’ days sky rocketed.

What had happened? Quite simply I had moved from going out to enjoy the day to going out with a purpose to photograph this or that and of course the adage is ‘the best laid plans of mice and men’…

I had stopped noticing most of what I was seeing so focused was I on the image I wanted to capture. I had stopped enjoying myself. A car accident several years ago left me with a weakened shoulder and fortuitously this resulted in lumping the camera around being a right pain. Literally.

I still always carry a camera but now it is one of those small compact cameras which is useless at taking photos long distance (even though it boasts an impressive zoom capability), but it takes nice general shots and the zoom is great for anything close bringing it improbably close. But… I have the camera in my pocket and in truth rarely use it and only after I have actually enjoyed myself- enjoying the experience first and then maybe taking a photograph.

So while I appreciate photographs and they allow the inclusion of others in your experiences my advice is leave the camera in your pocket, your brain will do the recording for you and you will get to experience the sights rather than letting the camera do it for you.

 

Not Seeing.

Sight is our dominant sense or it is if we forget about our other senses. We have a preoccupation with ‘seeing’ things. Listening to bird song isn’t enough we have to strain our necks backward to squint up into the tree to see the purveyor of song.

As I’ve got older my eyesight has necessitated glasses and quite often I find myself  taking my glasses off as I am ‘tired of looking’. The flip side is that I am very happy just listening. I am happy to listen to the Song Thrush in the tree, I don’t need to squint up into the tree to know that it is a Song Thrush.

Running the Hedgehog Rescue people often ask ‘how do we know if we have hedgehogs visiting?’.  After going through the signs that can be seen I then add, ‘and the best way is to sit out in the dark in the garden and just listen. They really are surprisingly noisy creatures pushing their way through snuffling as they go’. The most often reply to this is ‘I had never thought of that’.

The local wood is only a mile from our house and we have started making late evening trips to the woods sparked off I must admit by my finding lots of signs of badger activity. Jayne and I the other evening sat in the woods from early evening to well after dusk (from a respectable distance from the Sett) waiting for the possibility of a glimpse of stout familiarly marked head. We did not get a sight of them but their activity was most definitely audible.

Talking afterwards Jayne was keen on the idea of nocturnal visits to the woods but she informed me that ‘ we need to get one of those night vision things as it was getting a bit boring not seeing anything’. I suddenly realised that we had had very different experiences that night. At no point was I disappointed or bored, I was enthralled by the activity around me.

A fox in the dimmest of light had wandered within 10ft of us as we sat with our backs to the trees hiding our profile. Although only fleetingly seen its progress was easy to make out as the sound of a pounce came through the darkness. Crashing coming from scrub twenty or so feet in front of us spoke of deer (and the green glow from a Muntjac’s nervous eyes from a quick blip of red light torch confirmed this). A Tawny Owl hooted away in the distance behind us. On top of this was the unmistakeable snuffling progress of multiple badgers at a location I judged to be on our vantage point side and just on the periphery of the Sett. A visit by myself the next day revealed lots of fresh snuffle holes right where I thought that they had been the previous evening.

The Truth is that I didn't need to see anything. My ears were giving me the whole story and all that I needed to know. Other senses heighten as well and at one point the smell of Fox was overpoweringly present.

What is the point of all of this? Well, I guess that it is my ponderous way of saying stop looking and find a whole new experience by flexing the muscles of your other senses. We love TV with high definition and surround sound. Well, we come with inbuilt HD, surround sound, smell, touch and taste, time to use those and explore the least used senses, although I don’t suggest licking wildlife!

 

 

Waking Hedgehogs

It is already the beginning of March and the hedgehog admissions have started. It is a difficult time for hedgehogs- we are still having frosts and there is little natural food about but some hedgehogs especially those that went into hibernation early may be waking and others will be affected by gardening work.

 

A very recent twitter feed from BBC Wildlife Magazine promted me to write a few lines.

 

The twitter feed ran "Everything you need to know about hedgehog emergence" with a link to this article.

(Post my writing this BBC Wildlife Magazine have informed us via Twitter that "it's an adaptation of a 60-second expert column in our March issue")

 

 

While I am pleased that BBC Publishing and PTES are working to get information out there and I respect both organisations the tweet headline is very misleading and the few lines on the page sadly totally miss the important information about hedgehogs emerging post hibernation.

 

This is the information that I feel is important to anyone wishing to help hedgehogs at this time of year.

 

Hibernation.

Throughout March and April we will see hedgehogs start to come out of hibernation. During hibernation a hedgehog will reduce its hearbeat from 190 beats a minute to a barely detectable 20 beats per minute. Breathing slows to one breath every few minutes and it's body temperature drops from around 35°C, to 10°C. The hedgehog will feel cold to the touch and to all intents and purposes will look dead. It however isn't, it has reduced body function to a bare minimun to allow it to use as little energy as possible to survive the winter months. However it is imperative that the core temperature does not drop below 1°C as frostbite can occur or the hedgehog can freeze solid.

In extreme low temperatures brown fat reserves are brought into play in order to wake the hedgehog from hibernation so frost bite doesn't occur and in extreme and prolonged very cold temperatures prompting the hedgehog to move and find a much more insulated nest.

Waking up.

By the time March arrives fat reserves are running very low and this prompts hedgehogs to start coming out of hibernation. A hedgehog will have lost around one third of its body weight during hibernation.

For example Dan above (a resident wild but totally blind hedgehog at Willows) went into hibernation in the wildlife garden at over 900grams. He woke in late February at just over 550grams, very slow and lethargic and extremely wobbly.

When hedgehogs wake after hibernation and such drastic weight loss they initially wake very disorientated and weak, they appear drunk being very wobbly on their feet. At this point we have observed that the hedgehogs first priority is water not food so it is very important to ensure that there is ice free water in your garden all year round. (Remember extreme low temperatures can cause a hedgehog to wake in the middle of winter).

This first couple of days is a time of danger for the newly awake hedgehog. We have many recently emerged hedgehogs admitted to the rescue for simply getting themselves into trouble because they are so weak and disorientated. So water is a must and as soon as there is any sign of hedgehog activity please make sure that there is food available for them. It is also important to just check your garden and remove any stored clutter that may pose a threat to a weak and disorientated hedgehog.

Back to Dan who woke from hibernation just under two weeks ago now- with food left out in the garden he is now back up to just under 800grams from his 550gram waking weight and around 100grams under his pre-hibernation weight.

 

Human Hedgehog Hibernation Dangers

The last two weeks (late Feb and first week of March) have already seen a number of hedgehogs admitted after their hibernation nests were destroyed (The hedgehogs themselves still in hibernation).

March and April are awful months in the world of hedgehog rescue. We will admit many hedgehogs with soft tissue injuries from strimmers and garden forks, factured bones from spades and forks. (Simply check last years early admissions if you need proof) The injuries are often horrific with operations needed and long periods of rehabilitation. A number of the admissions will be put to sleep straight away due to the extent of the injuries. Sad, when you think that the animal has managed to survive the rigours of winter lowering its metabolism to near death in order to survive only to be seriously injured by human activity.

It is easy to avoid most of these situations.

• Check before you clear, cut back or carry out work on any shrubs or bushes.
• Check first before putting a spade or fork into the compost heap.
• Check under sheds or any structures in the garden before removing them if you are replacing them- hedgehogs like to nest in that gap under garden sheds and patio decking.
• Check before you mow or strim the grass.

Check with a torch, a gloved hand, your boot or gently with a stick. Gently poking and tapping a hedgehog may slightly annoy it but it will mean that you don't injure or possibly kill it.

 

Hedgehogs are in serious decline in the UK anyway but putting further obstacles in their way when they wake from the dangers of hibernation is easily avoided with a little knowledge and caring.

Please take the time to make your garden more hedgehog and wildlife friendly there is lots of info from  organisations on the internet or check out our Pledges for Hedgies page.

 

 

Please note the hedgehog 'Dan' in the photos is a wild but totally blind hedgehog. Hedgehogs should not be out in daylight- if you spot one in daylight please contact a rescue straight away.

Charlie co-Founder/Manager Willows Hedgehog Rescue

Willows Hedgehog Rescue is a large experienced hedgehog rescue covering the county of Worcestershire and areas of South Birmingham.

Please note that although we occasionaly work alongside various organisations that we are not affiliated with the BBC, BBC publishing, PTES.